Coffee Counter Girl
by Blaza
Summary: Five Years is a long time to miss someone. This is the story of an unimportant woman who fell in love with a Jaeger Pilot only to lose him to his grief. Five years pass and the two find themselves together again, but what is there left between them but years?
1. Chapter 1

The world is a scary place. I suppose it always has been for one reason or another, but for the last ten years or so, especially so. From the depths of the ocean came beasts like nothing humanity had ever seen, not even in our wildest and darkest of nightmares.

The best thing humanity has going for it though, is its ability to persevere, even over aliens from another dimension. So life moves on, stranger, but still good.

My part in all this is small, I'm simply a coffee counter girl. I lived in Alaska, back when there was still a Jaeger base there, and I poured coffee for all the people that lived and worked there. The workers from the base all came through Marie's Diner. That was probably my favorite place I worked.

Anyway, all the boys from the Jaeger base came through the diner, at all times of the day, so I saw them all. Each Jaeger team, each tech, even the janitors, I met them all. I knew them all. So as the program failed, as teams were taken by the kaiju, I saw them all disappear. I felt each and every death.

But most importantly, I knew the Becket Boys.

They were the most wonderful sort of bad boys, both with golden hearts. They came in to Marie's Diner all the time, and even when I wasn't in, I was told they asked for me. Raleigh and Yancy were the only customers I ever saw outside of work, so I saw them all the time.

When Yancy died, however, Raleigh disappeared with him.

Time past and I figured I couldn't wait for Raleigh to reappear forever. So I moved with the Jaegers, because I hoped that's what Raleigh did and I wanted to find him again if I could. I moved to Sydney first, thinking that at least there the spoke mostly English. I worked in a diner for a while, then a coffee shop, then with the rations office and another diner pouring coffee. I never saw my Becket boy.

When Sydney was heading towards closed I followed the Jaegers one last time and found myself in Hong Kong.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Something like One:

Five Years Passed

"I heard a rumor that Gypsy Danger is in Hong Kong," Hana told me while we washed dishes after the lunch rush. She was a pretty girl from California, a brunette with the whitest of smiles and baby blue eyes like stars.

"Oh really?" I felt my heart race though I tried not to let her know. Hana knew all about my, what she called, obsession with Gypsy and her drivers. She thought it was just a superstar fan-crush, but I knew better. It might have started out that way, but by the end it had changed into something else. How could it be a fan-crush when I had touched them? When I had loved them with my own hands? When they had loved me back?

"Yup, they moved it to the Thunderdome a few months ago I guess, and it just got finished with repairs." Hana smiled up to her arms in soap bubbles. She always used too much soap to wash the dishes, but I never minded because she always looked so happy. I was a sucker for other people's happiness. Maybe that was why I was so glad to be a coffee counter girl. I made people happy.

"Did they say who would be piloting it?" I asked, moving a stack of dirty trays into my half of the sink.

"Rumor is they found a man in Alaska somewhere that used to pilot one of this kind. They say he's the last of that age," Hana smiled. My heart did a weird flip in my chest. Raleigh couldn't have stayed in Alaska all these years, could he have? Had I run from him without knowing it? I shook the thought from my head.

"Did you get a name?" I asked, sounding troubled even to myself.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, Brill," Hana said, looking worried.

"I just worry about the choices I made," I scrubbed harder at the tray in my hand as if cleaning it would clean my mind of the terrible thoughts that danced around inside.

"You really think it could be your long-lost beaux?" Hana asked. Maybe she hoped it was for my sake.

"I don't know exactly what worries me more at this moment, the fact that Raleigh might have spent all that time in Alaska, probably mostly by himself, or the fact that I left the country as soon as the Jaegers started to fail, thinking that he'd follow the Jaegers too." I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed at the tray until my fingers were sore.

"Either way, it's not like he contacted you ever right? So it's his loss," Hana was trying to make me feel better, but it didn't work.

"His brother had just died, horribly, you've read those articles," I let the trays drown in the sink for a moment.

"True enough, I saw them. I was in California then," Hana sighed like she did every time she thought of California. Like a school girl lusting after her first love.

"And if he needed me, I wasn't there for very long after. Miss Marie's closed something like three months later,"

"That's plenty of time for him to have reached out to you, Brill, don't blame yourself." Hana dried her hands on a towel as the sink full of bubbles slowly descended towards the drain.

"But I left him there," I frowned. Hana was right I shouldn't blame myself. "What if…"

"Ladies, there're customers!" Boss shouted back to us from the front.

"On our way!" Hana trilled back. "Stop worrying yourself Brill, it'll make you grey!" She grinned at me and went to see to the customers. I leaned on the sink and sighed. Worrying would be the death of me.

"Brill!" Hana called. "You've got a table too!" Hana leaned in from the front end. "I think the factory just let out first shift." Hana smiled and disappeared.

I dried my hands, grabbed my notepad, put on smile and went to work.

Late that night, when the night owls were just coming in and Hana was digging out the alcohol we weren't supposed to sell, a man came in and sat at the end of the counter all by himself. It wasn't uncommon for people to drift in at night like that, but I noticed this guy out of the corner of my eye. I'd been talking to one of the regulars whose name I never remembered and this man sat down, looking around like he was looking for something. I figured he wanted coffee, it was the main reason people came in here this time of night, or maybe some food.

"I'll be right with you sir," I smiled thought I wasn't looking at him. I went into the kitchen to grab a fresh coffee cup and the coffee pot.

"I heard there's a waitress here that sings sometimes," the man said. He was looking up at me as I set the coffee mug before him and filled it.

"That's probably me, though I can get Hana to sing sometimes," I smiled at him and he watched me, waiting for me to get the joke. Something tickled in the back of my mind looking at him, he was blond and square and had this look in his eyes like he had a secret. "Can I get you something to eat, love?"

"I want you to look at me for a moment," He said, a smirk playing on his lips. I blinked and looked at him harder, trying to see him as not a customer (which blinded me most nights), that tickling in my mind became incessant. My eyes grew wide. "There it is," He smiled now like a boy after his first kiss.

"Oh my god, Raleigh!" I almost choked on my tongue in my surprise. "I was just talking about you this afternoon, what are the odds of," I laughed at myself, confused and happy to see him.

"It's good to see you, Brill," He smirked at me again and I giggled. It felt just like the old days, but his smile was more sad and I had plenty more reasons to be sad myself.

"I heard they brought Gypsy Danger all the way from Alaska," I was smiling like a kid on Christmas because he didn't seem mad about the past at all. He just looked happy to see me, which was more than I could have hoped for, had I actually taken the time to hope.

"They did," He was still just sort of smirking at me and I laughed a little uncomfortable. "She's as beautiful as always,"

"So," I swallowed because my throat was dry all of a sudden. "What have you been doing these last five years?" I asked lamely. There were so many questions I didn't know how to ask. Was he well? Was his heart broken still? How much damage did losing his brother do him? But I couldn't form the proper words.

"I worked where I could, mostly construction," Raleigh said taking a drink of the coffee before him. I nodded.

"Build anything cool?" I asked. My waitress questions coming to me easier than all the things I wanted to ask him about the time between now and the past we had shared.

"I worked on the coastal wall mostly," I smiled at him because I knew how hard that work was. People died doing that sort of work and it hurt my heart to know that he had been through that.

"I'm sorry," I found my arms crossed over my chest as if I was trying to hide my insides from him. He glanced down the counter to where two regulars were just seating themselves.

"Looks like you've got more customers," Raleigh nodded slightly towards them. I wiped my hands on my apron.

"I'll be right back, Raleigh," I took a step, looked at him again, and went to pour more coffee.

I came back and sat next to him on the customer's side of the counter. He was mostly through his coffee now.

"How are you?" I asked, watching him. I couldn't think of anything else that was safe to ask. It suddenly occurred to me that we were strangers who shared a past, staring across a hole that spanned five years.

"I could ask you the same thing," He finished his coffee in one last drink. I nodded. "Where did you go?" He asked when he set the coffee cup back on the counter using only the tips of his fingers. I watched the cup instead of him.

"I followed the Jaegers, or so I always said, I went to Sydney, until a year or so ago." I scratched my cheek as I thought. "I sorta thought that I might find you again one day because I thought you'd run the same direction. I guess I was wrong,"

"I came back looking for you, but Marie's was closed." Raleigh said.

"Ya, I left just before that happened. She was moving inland." I said. "And there was talk of closing the base, I fled," The silence grew awkward as he nodded and didn't reply.

"Do you still love me?" Raleigh asked then and I looked at him in surprise. He didn't look upset or mad or anything really. He was just asking me about the weather.

"I like to think I do," I said. It was true, all anyone would have to do is ask Hana how I talked about him and my past. Some things, especially when they don't have closure, never fade. Raleigh smiled a little.

"I'm sorry I didn't come back sooner, it would have been nice to have your smile these last few years," I couldn't help but touch his arm, my heart hurt for him and me and all the years between us. The way he spoke told me he'd been alone just like me.

"I'm sorry I left so soon," Raleigh covered my hand with his on his arm. He understood.

"We're a mess," Raleigh laughed.

"We've had five years to make ourselves messes," I smiled back. He just looked at me for a long moment and I could tell there were too many things he wanted to say.

"I miss you," Was all he managed. I couldn't stop myself then and threw my arms around his neck and pulled him close.

"I miss you too," I said. His arms squeezed me back.

"Brill!" Hana's shrill voice came from down the counter. "I need your help over here,"

"Hana, remember that rumor you were spreading earlier?" I stood from Raleigh.

"Ya?" Hana had a tray balanced on her hip that had the empty plates and cups from two different tables on it.

"For once, you were right. That pilot is my long lost Becket Boy," I grinned, leaning on Raleigh's shoulder. Hana almost dropped her tray.

"Holy shit," Hana blinked her blue eyes at us as if she must be dreaming. "I still need your help though, the boys from South Dock are in and they're hungry, and Yuna isn't coming in for another hour." Hana headed back into the kitchen with her tray.

"I'll be done once Yuna gets here if you want to wait," I told Raleigh. He nodded.

"I waited this long, I can wait for another hour," I made my way to the kitchen but stopped at the door.

"If you want food or anything, let me know,"

"I could use more coffee," He pushed his cup towards me with a little grin.

"Coming right up," I smiled better than I had in years.


	3. Chapter 3

A Chapter Called Three:

I knew the world was going to end when the Kaiju sirens went off the week after Raleigh had visited me. It was right then. As all the people ran for shelters, Hana and I took to the roof with the groups of people that were foolish enough to want to see the end instead of hide from it. For me it was because I didn't want to get caught off guard and crushed again. I wanted to know what was going to kill me as it tried.

"Did you get that radio working yet, Hal?" Hana asked. Hal was the man who lived above Hana in her apartment building. He had set up a network of people like us that wanted to watch instead of hide from the aliens at our door. Each group around the city relayed what they were seeing and what they knew of the attacks. It was both exciting and terrifying because it wasn't unreasonable to hear someone die.

"Hold on," Hal shook the box that held the power supply. "Got it. Home Base to satellites, anybody have eyes on anything?"

"Satellite Three to Home Base," The radio crackled. "The Jaegers are flying in," Satellite Three was on the coast, there were normally only three of them there, so we called them Three.

"Which ones?" I asked. Hana gave me a sad look because she knew why I asked. There were five of us on the roof of an apartment building, a few miles from the coast. Hana, Hal and I, plus two people from the building, a man and woman, who didn't give their names. I wondered if they didn't speak English and thought we didn't speak Chinese well enough, though we all did at this point.

"Which Jaegers Satellite Three?" Hal asked.

"Satellite Four to Home Base, we're six people today, that's all." A female voice added.

"Home base to Four, thanks for the update," Hal replied. The rest of the Satellites ended up following Three, thought there was no reason to do so.

"Three to Home, there's the big one from Europe, our very own Crimson Typhoon, and the one they just brought from Sydney, Striker something," He said.

"Honestly Three, there are only four Jaegers left in the whole damn world," Hal snorted into the mic. "It's Striker Eureka and Cherno Alpha." Static came over the line as Three contemplated that fact.

"And there's Gypsy Danger, Hal, you forgot that one." I added.

"Any other news, Satellite Three?" Hal rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"The Kaiju has appeared," Three said and from his voice, it must've been a big one. I turned when I heard the screaming grow from the ocean side as people ran for cover as fast as they could. I couldn't see much, but every once in a while the helicopters that attempted to shine light on the fight caught a glimpse of the monster and the mechs that fought it. Hana grabbed my arm because she was always so scared when the monster was within sight, no matter how many miles away it was yet.

"It's ok," I managed. "The fight is a long way off yet, from us anyway." She clung to my arm as if I was the only thing in the world that was real. I pretended, for her sake more than mine, that I was. Satellite Three relayed each hit the Jaegers dealt and each hit they took.

"The Kaiju used some kind of acid, shit, shit, shit," Static cut into the transmission. "Cherno Alpha is down," Hana was still clinging to my arm and I felt her shudder. The Kaiju was winning.

Three had to relocate to another building when the fighting began to drift towards shore, but when they came back online the one thing we never thought we'd hear came over the line.

"There's a second Kaiju," The static came again and Three was silent. I heard Hana begin to cry. I wondered if I should be crying too, but my Gypsy wasn't in the fight, though who knew why, so my Raleigh was safe at least.

"Satellite Six to Home Base, Gypsy Danger is inbound, Typhoon and Alpha are down. Striker seems to be unable to move. Someone shot off flares." Satellite Six was normally inland, but they had a telescope and binoculars so they could see what they needed to. I felt my heart break. Raleigh was going to be in the fight now too. It's not that I didn't think he could do it, because he was one of the best fighters in his time, but I didn't want to risk him. Even though I knew without him and whoever ended up piloting Gypsy with him, we would all be lost, I was selfish. One of my flaws was that I was terribly, terribly selfish.

The radio went silent, everyone too busy with their own lives to relay the battle. We could hear the monsters screeching and roaring. We could hear the metal scrape. We felt all the blows and heard the destruction as it made its way towards us.

"Come on Gypsy, take them down," I said though I knew they couldn't hear me. Hana had her face buried in my shoulder. I wondered why she even came up here with me. Somehow it didn't make sense to me that she'd come up here on my behalf. If she was afraid, she could have gone to a shelter, I wouldn't have stopped her. Maybe it was because she didn't want to leave me alone, or be alone herself.

"You ladies gonna stay up here all night?" Hal asked. He had packed up his radio. The fight had been going on for some time now. "I would like to get farther inland at the very least."

"I don't want to run," I said watching the burning horizon. The building we stood on shook as one of the giants hit the ground. I kept watching for a glimpse of the blue paint that protected my Raleigh. Now that I knew he was alive and well, all my old wounds of him were bleeding all over again.

"Brill, we should go," Hana said. Her face was very wet and her eyes were very blue. I sighed and looked back at the skyline one more time. A noise like screaming thunder cut through the air and I nodded.

"Ok," Hana detached herself from me and hurried towards the stairs. I moved more slowly and watched that horizon. I saw something head straight for the sky and caught my breath. The Kaiju was flying and he had Gypsy in his claw. Kaiju had never flown before.

They went up and up and up until the sky swallowed them whole. Now I felt the tears that Hana had shed come to my own eyes. Jaegers were never made to fly.

As if hearing my fear, Gypsy began to descend towards the ground, burning through the clouds like an asteroid or shooting star.

When Gypsy hit the ground, the force knocked me off of my feet even from my distance. I stood and brushed the gravel from my arms only to find I'd scraped myself up pretty good and my head was spinning. Hana came into my line of sight from the stairwell and pulled me along behind her as images flashed across my mind of Gypsy falling and Raleigh not being able to catch himself when he hit the ground.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four, Let's Call it End:

The world will always remember the day the Breach was closed. Every news station, every radio, every paper, all shouted out with joy that the Breach was closed. The world was safe. As for those that closed the Breach, only two survived. The news glossed over the fact, simply because they did not know who survived and who had died. None of the Jaegers had been recovered.

There was some talk of the nuclear contamination from a bomb set off during the assault on the Breach, but the world was too high on victory at last to dwell on the damages.

With all the joy in the world, Boss didn't mind when I asked for some time off.

My time off was spent at home looking through old pictures mostly. After Raleigh's visit, before all the joy, I had unearthed them from the back of my linen closet and set them all out where I could see them. Raleigh was always one for taking pictures and he was perfect in them as well. His carefree grin haunted me from each one. I think it was worse not knowing if he was one of the lucky ones, or the unlucky…

Hana called me a week into my absence from the diner to ask how I was doing. I think she was the only one who knew why I was gone. I told Boss that it was because of injuries, but that wasn't it really. Sure I'd scuffed myself up pretty good on that rooftop, and my head still hurt sometimes when I focused on something for too long, but I'd dealt with worse. The worst part of the whole thing was that I still couldn't tell if I was in mourning or not.

"Everyone's asking for you here," Hana said.

"Tell them I'm fine," I tried to sound better than I felt.

"You're not though, are you? Have you been eating?" Hana asked.

"I have been eating, yes. I have food here usually," I half scoffed at her.

"Want me to bring you something from the diner? I can sneak away for twenty minutes while it's dead here," Hana said hopefully. I managed to laugh at her.

"No, no, I'll be fine. If it makes you feel any better, maybe I'll stop by this evening for dinner, get served instead of serving for once," I was actually smiling at that thought. All I'd ever done in my life was serve other people.

"You know, he could still be alive right? They haven't released the names of either the dead or the living yet," Hana said. I swallowed my heart as she said 'dead'.

"Ya Hana, I know," I could hear the tears in my voice. I shouldn't feel this so strongly, it'd been years since he was in my life, I should be just fine.

"Ok, but really come for dinner ok?" Hana said.

"I will, promise," I swallowed against the thought of knowing that Raleigh was dead rather than just thinking it. I'm not sure knowing would make me feel any better.

"Ok, see you later then,"

"See you," I hung up the phone before she could say anything else.

Towards evening, I decided I really should at least leave my apartment, though I wasn't sure if I intended to go to the diner or not. I got myself showered and presentable again (I hadn't really been taking care of myself) and just that made me feel a bit better, at least a bit more hopeful.

I stepped outside of my door and looked up and down the street. There weren't many people milling around this time of day, people not yet coming home from work and such, or already out at some "the world didn't end" party, which seemed to be in constant supply. The night was cool, bordering on cold, but it was refreshing. Maybe my apartment was stuffier than I thought.

"Brill?" I turned on my heel, almost slipping on the wet metal platform. I knew that voice.

"Raleigh? You're alive?" I wasn't sure if I should believe my senses or not. I hadn't been outside in days, maybe I was hallucinating. Raleigh patted himself on the chest.

"I'm a bit sore, but alive," He grinned up at me. I felt a million different things all well up in my chest and before I knew what I was doing I had my arms around his neck. He'd tell the story later that I jumped from the fifth step, straight into his arms, and he'd only managed to catch me because he loved me so much.

Author Note: I'm really sorry it took me this long to realize I never posted the last two chapters of this story. I literally thought I had posted them waaaaay back when. *cone of shame*


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